Meeting documents

Venue: The Paralympic Room - AVDC. View directions

Contact: Chris Ward, Email: cward@aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk 

Items
No. Item

1.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 91 KB

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 22 November 2017.

Minutes:

RESOLVED –

 

That the minutes of the meeting held on 22 November 2017 be approved as a correct record.

2.

Buckinghamshire Skills Strategy pdf icon PDF 54 KB

To consider the attached report.

 

Contact Officer: Claire Britton – 01296 585471

Minutes:

Aylesbury Vale was covered by two different Local Enterprise Partnerships: South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP) which included the following councils; Bedford Borough, Central Bedfordshire, Cherwell, Corby, Daventry, Kettering, Luton, Milton Keynes, Northampton and South Northants, and Bucks Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership (BTVLEP) which consisted of the following other Councils; Wycombe, Chiltern and South Buckinghamshire and Bucks County Council. Representatives from SEMLEP had attended Scrutiny on 31 October 2017 to provide an update on the pending Strategic Economic Plan and Skills Plan which was subsequently launched on 8 November 2017.

 

The item was attended by Jackie Campbell, Skills Development Manager at BTVLEP and Ian Barham, Partnership Manager at BTVLEP who introduced Members to the Buckinghamshire Skills Plan. The intention of BTVLEP was to build conditions for the sustainable economic growth in the entrepreneurial heart of Britain and this would be achieved through a strategy that provided a framework and focus for joint commitment to developing skills across the county. There were four key themes in the strategy:

 

·         Developing future workforce: ensure young people are prepared for work and make informed career choices.

·         Develop robust supply of skilled ambitious talent for growth sectors and Enterprise Zones with a focus on creative, digital high performance engineering, life sciences, food and drink manufacture and space industries.

·         Support lifelong learning by addressing skills gaps.

·         Support skill development and recruitment in the health and social care, construction, tourism, service and public sector.

 

BTVLEP itself was the second smallest LEP in the UK and had three arms of delivering its services:

 

Buckinghamshire Skills Board – focussed on promoting and optimising links between employers and educators in order to enable young people to become more work ready through employer involvement and ensure they gain the right skills for the local growth sectors.

 

Buckinghamshire Business First – business led and business focussed community for new, established and growing business in the County. Community members were provided knowledge, support and opportunities for growth and benefited from connections, facilities, products and services. Currently 10,500 businesses were members of BBF. 

 

Buckinghamshire Advantage – operational element of BTVLEP’s delivery of funded capital schemes to ensure local growth funds were invested to maximum effect.

 

The BTVLEP Strategic Economic Plan was originally produced in 2014 and had been refreshed in 2016. The plan had provided the framework for Local Growth Deals for Buckinghamshire. Since 2012, over £100m had been secured which had been utilised for new road and rail connections (such as Stoke Mandeville relief road), town centre investment, skills and business incubation facilities, business investment funds and digital infrastructure. The BTVLEP Skills Capital Projects in the Vale included Westcott and Silverstone, as well as a business incubation centre based on cycle technology and a centre of Entrepreneurship at University of Buckingham which was under construction and due to open in September as part of wider plans to double its intake in the next ten years. Meanwhile, University Campus Aylesbury Vale sought to create an exciting Digital Innovation Hub to support business  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

3.

Work Programme

To consider the future work programme. Meetings are scheduled as follows:-

 

13 March 2018:                      Aylesbury Town Centre Plan Update

 

23 May 2018:                          Car Parking Strategy

 

12 September 2018:              No items as yet

 

 

Members had expressed an interest in the following items coming to Committee:

 

  • Employment land take up at Berryfields
  • AVDC Economic Development Strategy

 

Minutes:

Members considered their work programme as per the agenda. It was possible that an LEP Review would be ready for the next meeting in March. The Industrial Strategy would also be presented to Committee when it was ready.

 

In addition to this, Members saw the benefit of the following coming to Committee: 

 

·         Invite Rupert Walters, Head of Economic Research at Buckinghamshire Business First, to guest speak on current and future skills in the local area.

·         An overall update on broadband provision within the Vale with a focus on connecting areas without it.